EdTech Loop Ep. 91: Take Me To Your Leader

It's episode 91 of the EdTechLoop podcast and we are joined by the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss, Evan O'Branovic. Danelle and I grilled the poor guy on almost every current issue involving educational technology during this marathon pod. Evan shares some great insights and a "yes we can," mindset to the pod and District. This is a packed show, enjoy!

 

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Transcript: 

Larry Burden  0:00  

good parenting skills. This guy,

 

Danelle Brostrom  0:03  

Come join us, in this small, sweaty office we call a studio

 

Evan O'Branovic  0:14  

so great 

 

Larry Burden  0:15  

It's back here really, It's safe.

 

Larry Burden  0:18  

I have no idea what I'm talking about now.

 

Larry Burden  0:23  

It's Episode 91 of the EdTech Loop podcast. My name is Larry Burden and she's worryingly started every morning for the last month standing atop her desk declaring Oh Captain, my captain. It's Danielle Brostrom. She doesn't get the reference again. And we are joined by the new boss, not quite the same as the old boss. It's Evan O'Bran...O'Branovic

 

Evan O'Branovic  0:46  

Obranovic

 

Larry Burden  0:46  

Obranovic, I got it right. Yeah. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  0:48  

Nailed it. 

 

Moment of Zen  0:49  

Thank you, Karen. He's here to deepen our understanding around what's new and educational technology. Though not nearly as deep as this week's Moment of Zen. The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the leader adjust the sails.

 

Larry Burden  1:08  

Though it may have been left unrefrigerated too long, and was surely about to turn, we finally have someone to cook this week's meat of the show. Meet the director.

 

Larry Burden  1:19  

Welcome to the district.

 

Evan O'Branovic  1:20  

Thank you. 

 

Larry Burden  1:21  

Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment and on behalf of the district make a blanket apology for Thomas, just in general, just in general. Besides that, what do you think so far. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  1:33  

I have been extremely impressed so far, coming in from a much smaller district. So, just the pure size and scope and sequence of everything that happens here is quite incredible. 

 

Larry Burden  1:46  

Overwhelming or more like well I can't wait to get my hands on all these... 

 

Evan O'Branovic  1:50  

Oh, both, yeah.

 

Larry Burden  1:51  

Cool toys.

 

Evan O'Branovic  1:52  

We've had plenty of overwhelming moments coming home, looking at my wife like, we're not in Aspen anymore. And then, but it's an extremely exciting opportunity as well so I think that's been kind of what saves those overwhelming moments is feeling like wow there's a lot that I can dig my hands into and the staff around me is incredible so it's been very exciting in that aspect. 

 

Larry Burden  2:14  

What brought you to Traverse City.

 

Evan O'Branovic  2:15  

Well, I grew up downstate. So I'm from Michigan, the mitten, you know, originally and went to Michigan State, go green, 

 

Larry Burden  2:25  

Go blue, 

 

Evan O'Branovic  2:25  

yeah, I know I found that division up here, which is always good. And then I graduated with my degree in elementary education, decided that Michigan was not the place for me and took off out west. Never been to Colorado before but decided that was my time and ended up landing kind of your dream gig in Aspen, Colorado teaching fourth grade. So I did that for six years, convinced my now wife, then girlfriend to come out with me. She's a teacher as well. And then I got my Masters in educational technology, was pursued by my old Tech Director to become a Tech Integrator, found that extremely exciting, rewarding kind of where I wanted to be. And then was always kind of on the lookout for grandiose opportunities to come back to the home state. And so, when I saw this come up, it was something that I had to at least throw my hat in the ring for. And surprisingly, they picked me, which was very exciting and, and then just kind of made the call home and told our parents that were making the move. And like I said before, kind of, for me, being such a big place in terms of just like the scope of how many schools, and the amount of students, and what all happens here. When I got a chance to speak with, you know, staff and see the team that's in place, my final interview was actually flying out here, and kind of checking everything out, it really made that, that size not seem like such an obstacle that I couldn't overcome and so it was really comforting and kind of made that decision for me to take you know a step out of my comfort zone and do something a little bit bigger than myself and so yeah. So far I'm very happy with this decision, but we're only a month and a half in.

 

Danelle Brostrom  4:11  

So what are the trends you see in technology? You know you've been in tech for a while, and, and Ed tech specifically for a while. What kinds of things do you see happening? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  4:20  

You know that's, that's been pretty interesting. From my perspective, I think what you'll find too is, is always that everyone has their two cents and what's tech shifting every so often and in multitude of directions, it's hard to really pinpoint it. And that's one of the exciting yet frustrating things about working with it to me. What I've noticed is mobile centric, meaning, just everything's got to be mobile to use. Can we use our phones, can we use tablets smaller devices. You know what, what in that mobile format can be applied to what we're trying to do because no one wants to waste time with, with computers anymore. In the sense of our big laptops, you know, which is pretty funny thinking how these things are, it's just, it's too heavy, I don't want to carry it with me. But I can have my phone. Can I do it on my phone? And I think our students, you know are the prime example of that. Teachers, were still in the transition but. So yeah, anything mobile, but then as we look at new devices, and you know the laptops, we're going to bring to the staff hopefully this year. It's what devices are touchscreen, which ones are small, and portable and easy to carry. Which ones can flip over into tablet mode. So those to me are just kind of, that's become the trend. What, what can get from point A to point B very easily. What can I pull out and work out on the fly. And so anything that drives to that point, I think is always, you know, kind of, you know, an excitement for people. They look at it, even if it may not be that great of a device, but if it's smaller, it's more mobile, it always will get a second look. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  5:48  

And then connectivity is big. Wi-Fi is water, at this point in our lives as we know. When the Wi-Fi went out last week, so. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  5:57  

Old fashion day is cool.

 

Evan O'Branovic  5:58  

Old fashion day is cool and everyone gets, you know, real worked up about it because it is like you turned off their water supply. And, and I had several people, when I was doing a school tour that morning when it happened go. Should we just have Wi-Fi days, should we should we not have school if the internet's not there. And I'm like, that has become the first thought right. Can we even do what we need to do if the Wi Fi is not accessible which I think most of us who are a little bit older and came into it as a transition period where like, like you said, it's old fashioned day. So yeah, to me, the connectivity is huge and that goes for a lot of different things too. So, you know, whether it's to the internet, or just, you know, in the classroom setting to me it's always finding interesting how people perceive how they're connecting, meaning to like a display to showcase their class, or to their other students. You know, are those devices easily connectable? Can I bring up a student's screen and show what they're doing? Can I put my screen very easily up on the projector, TV, SMART Board whatever it's going to be? But whatever it is, does it work really quickly and can I do it without really having to have any sort of learning curve? So any devices and tools we can find that do that more simply, I think are home runs. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  7:10  

And then simple as best. I think as things have become more complicated, the less clicks someone has to do, the less work. If I don't have to read a manual and it'll auto set up for me, if it'll connect to that display for me, if the Wi Fi runs by itself, I love it. If it doesn't, and it takes a little digging, you know, with this world everything needs to be faster, quicker, more on point then it just becomes an instant point of frustration for someone who may not be as apt to look into that, and so, you know, what's simplest. But that goes for the tools that the teachers and students are using to. How many clicks does a kid need to use to get into that, you know, curriculum device or whatever the teachers using. And what kind of information do they have to share? I think that's become a big thing to. Do I have to give an email, a password and home address? Forget it, I don't know that kind of time. But if I just need an email and a password great, let's knock it out of the park. Or what kind of information do I need to give, which is a good thing people are becoming more aware of, you know what they're sharing and who has access to that. But that becomes a huge roadblock. And then I think there's a huge piece, from parents, students, Old Guard Teachers, Administrators, of less is more. Too much screen time, too much time on the device, are they really being used purposefully, which I agree with to some point. And so it's really a thoughtful consideration, I think going back to that purpose for use. How are we using it, and just because we have computers and we slap our kids in front of them is that mean they're really learning? Are they doing anything innovative? That's definitely not always the case, and I think you're just seeing that from everybody. Now it comes in different forms. So you'll have, you know, parents are very apt on one side of just, usually it's screen time. How much screen time is my kid getting, and hopefully getting them to ask the right questions of, screen time can be a question but it's, is it purposeful time? If it is, then it's probably worth them sitting down for a little while and using that device. But if they're just kind of doing facts or simple things that can be done in old fashioned day, then, yeah, I think less is more. We don't need to use technology for technology's sake. So that to me has been just kind of a big pickup and something from my role back in Colorado to what I'm seeing here is just the justification and or just the thoughtful use of that technology so that it's being used purposely. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  9:30  

Fits right into the ISTE Standards and the Triple E Framework stuff that we're really trying to push in this district. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  9:35  

Absolutely. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  9:36  

Create over consume. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  9:37  

Yes, yes creation to me is, is absolutely key. It's something that I think often gets overlooked. And it's, because it's not easy. It's not easy to have anyone, whether it's from the teacher level all the way down to the student, really try and create something, or look at how they're, they're creating or thinking, you know, a little bit broader than just accomplishing a task. It's always about tying a lot of things together, and you know, that always takes work so. That's tough for teachers, but that's where you're going to get meaningful connections. That's where the learning is going to happen. That's where I think it becomes very easy to justify having your kids on a piece of technology, your students on a device. Because of what the end product is, and the fact that it wasn't just for one simple, you know, task. They didn't just practice math facts. They created, you know, a website explaining a multitude of math concepts that they work together with, but that's not easy. So it takes a lot of work and that's the hard part for sure. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  10:33  

And a lot of time. 

 

Larry Burden  10:34  

So with time. One of the things that we do struggle with, you know, the kids like the mobile devices, the teachers like the mobile devices, everybody likes mobile devices. Yet, I know we, we struggle at the secondary levels with, maybe, misuse. We want them to be creative. We don't want them to be distracted. How do we, I guess, navigate that balancing act? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  10:55  

Yeah, that's a tough one. I don't think there's a, there are necessarily a sure fast answer to, this is how you make sure all your.

 

Larry Burden  11:02  

Figure it all out. No one's, no one's. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  11:04  

Here's the button to press. That's what everyone wants. Which is always tough, you know. What button can I press? What, I feel like in that same, what app can I give my students so they can't do anything else? Right? What locks down the device? And to me, that's that's asking or approaching it from the wrong angle. So if we're worried about them, you know, we need to force them into this one spot, then, what the activity you're doing is not engaging enough. And that's a lot of ask for the teachers as well. So there's, I'm not trying to downplay what their job is, and that and how they're supposed to do that. But it's really, it starts with people like Danelle and that curriculum, the instructional side of how are you utilizing your mobile device, your laptops, your computers, any sort of technology, to be engaging with the students and making it purposeful. And I would hope in my experience, which has not been long, but with Danielle and David and our other team, our instructional team is, they have that opinion of, if it's not, then don't use it. And that's not to say you just throw it away in the garbage. But you really need to be like, it's okay to step away. I don't need to use this cool new thing all the time just for the sake of using it. So, it's going to take some work I think I'm changing just a mentality of a teacher, of the time, like Danielle mentioned, it would take to, you know, create something that's truly engaging, and how that would be implemented, and what that looks like. And then, you know, contingency plans. So, when it doesn't work, what are you going to do then? Because it's not going to work. I just always like to run under that assumption. It's gonna break. It's going to break probably in the middle of the most important part. And my favorite statement that I've had so far here in the district is, "oh yeah, we were working on that but then technology didn't work." And I'm like, Oh, well that's a bummer. I'm really disappointed that it didn't work. But that's a really broad term. So you know more specific is great but just, that's going to happen, you know, so I try and very kindly redirect that in the sense of, it absolutely it's just not going to work. We can't rely on it because, like I said, it's always changing, it's new things that we're trying to do are usually on the cutting edge, which is great. So you have to plan for a different way to approach it. And so that's kind of the way with that mobile device thing. It can become an absolute distraction and just detraction from what's happening in the classroom and so you either have to spend a lot of time, and I think even if you do, to plan something meaningful you might find that happening. And if that's happening, you need a parachute. How you going to bail out? 

 

Larry Burden  13:39  

What's your plan B? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  13:40  

What's your plan B? 

 

Danelle Brostrom  13:41  

I want to high five that answer because I think that I hear that on a weekly basis. How can I block my kids from YouTube? How can I keep my kids just on the one website that I want them to go on? And I think, like, as an adult, you have to learn how to balance all of this, and the phone, and just everything. And I think if we never K-12, talk to our kids about how to balance, and what that feels like, and that you struggle with it to. You just kind of send them off and then they don't know how to do it. I don't feel like you can lock everything down. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  14:15  

You can't lock everything down. And if that is your solution to everything then, again, I think just like you spoke to, you're not preparing them for the next level. And that's, you know, I think what everyone touts and everyone is truly deeply meaning to do so. You want to hopefully bring that conversation back around to them and be like, if we want to prepare them for college, no one's going to say, their professors not going, How can I lock them into this app, you can take all those quizzes with your friends next to you and multiple tabs open. So, is that really the goal, is that where we're moving towards? Because that puts a level of complication, onus on, you know, the people say, Thomas to crank things down in a way that becomes I just think unsustainable. You can't, you can't do it. And then again, it's one more thing to break. So you really have to be careful on that balance of, of how much control you want to have versus how much knowledge, skill set, practice you want to impart on those students and teachers to, to just do the tasks that they're trying to do or make meaningful ones, so that people just are naturally engaged in it. You don't have to keep refocusing them because chances are, unfortunately, that might not be the most best use of that time in that lesson. So having that reflection time is huge. And being able to, I guess, except that it was a dud. It's got to be okay I think especially in technology. 

 

Larry Burden  15:40  

You have to be willing to fail. The teacher has to be willing to fail. It's an opportunity to actually model that with a lesson. Sometimes I have, I have this great idea. Didn't work, let's... 

 

Evan O'Branovic  15:51  

Right, 

 

Larry Burden  15:51  

let's move on. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  15:52  

Yeah, because it will not work, it will, it will not work.

 

Larry Burden  15:56  

We would like to get to the point, we talked about this a lot, is, you know, the hope that technology just becomes a tool. It's not even "technology" anymore. It's just, you know, one of many tools. And we're going back to that engagement piece and locking everything down. It's like taking the head off a hammer. Suddenly, it's not a useful tool anymore. Yes. Yeah. The head is the part that's going to hurt you, as well. But if you can instruct the, the educator and the student on the proper use. That would be the more beneficial route to take as opposed to making it no longer tool, 

 

Danelle Brostrom  16:30  

And the task design, I think that's a big part of this. Have really engaging tasks that draw kids in. Rather than just the lower level recall kind of stuff. That's what's going to keep kids where they need to be. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  16:41  

They just need an emphasis on that, from the top on down of, I think like Daniel mentioned, the time that's involved in that. It's a lot. So to think that you can do that in a 30 minute prep period, it's just not going to happen and that's okay. So hopefully we can start to, you know, as this becomes an absolute ingrained part of what's happening, which I think it very well is terms of using technology within, you know, our teaching day. To really be thoughtful about how we're supporting those teachers and staff to do that. And what that really looks like, and what the best practice is. And I think everyone around you is figuring that out. So I don't think TCAPS is ahead or behind. I think it's a learning process, but you really need to have that at the forefront. And at the same piece, the reflection of, well that plan does not work, or that amount of time is not going to cut it, or what the realistic expectation if this is the only time you can provide, then what can we actually get done that we think is valuable to our students, you know on our staff. And I mean those are hard conversations but I think they need to happen. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  17:47  

Okay, I know that you love Google. Favorite Google tool and why?

 

Evan O'Branovic  17:52  

This is a good one. Um, I gotta go with a simple Google tool but one I've found the most fun in working with, you know, other teachers and students when I get a chance to get in there is Google Slides. I think it often gets overlooked. It's left as its PowerPoint. PowerPoint for Google I can share it with my students, great. I think there's a lot of little tips and tricks and hacks. Done a few presentations, you know, labeling it as such, with, that you can do with slides to really kind of change the dynamic of how you use it. So changing the page size, which is a super simple change in that, and it kind of changes the whole dynamic of what it's used. It becomes a magazine. You can print it out in eight and a half by eleven. Becomes a virtual, you know, publication where it looks like pages in a book that can be flipped through online. Adding different elements when you can put videos. My favorite thing to do, hopefully my friends back in Colorado, listen to this, I love GIFS. I love making GIFS. So, unfortunately not really funny, guess they're more, you know, educational training GIFS of how to do this that or the other. And so being able to make those short videos and then put them in a slideshow and so people can flip through as they deem necessary and go back and forth, has been my, was my go to in terms of any sort of instructional tool. And people seem to appreciate that far more than listening to my voice for three minutes droning on and on. Or being like, that two minutes, does that where he explained the part I already know? With the slideshow you can just flip back and forth and I just think it's fun to make GIFs. So, and then you get to put a funny one at the end. So I love that piece of slides, and just in general the some of the new adoptions they have with it. Using the, the speaker notes, letting the students be able to voice-to-text

 

Danelle Brostrom  19:47  

Huge

 

Evan O'Branovic  19:48  

into the speaker notes is big. When voice to type first came on a Google Docs so it was great tool for, you know, our students who couldn't type. And how are we going to get them so they would talk into the document. The document would write and then I'm trying to show a first grader how to copy and paste. And that's just, we're not using again, our time wisely. We're pulling the parachute very quickly. And so,

 

Larry Burden  20:09  

What is developmentally appropriate? Not that, it turns out. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  20:12  

Absolutely. And so, it's a go to. And I like it because it's easily accessible. It's one that already people are familiar with. So, when you can kind of show them some really fun ways to utilize it. That's me, tops it for now. Slides is my favorite. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  20:27  

Good answer.

 

Evan O'Branovic  20:28  

Choose your own adventures with slides. That's the best. create links to different pages, hide pages. All kids get a kick out of that especially when you let them make their own.

 

Larry Burden  20:38  

I'm excited to do that. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  20:40  

So give us some insight into a few things we can expect from our TCAPS Technology Department this year. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  20:45  

These are well thought out and ever changing. But what I'm hoping to bring here, and utilize the people and the resource that already here which I've mentioned are great. So a big thing for us is going to be some curriculum partnerships. So how are we working well with our curriculum folks to do all the things that we've just been rambling on about? Without these two departments, you know, working together, being on the same page, communicating better, it's not going to happen. And so I'm really hoping to and by all signs pointing right now, I mean, it's, it's starting to work. But it's a work in progress of just opening those doors, creating those open lines, making sure that as much as curriculum may be on the forefront for some of the things we're doing as technology and like that same mentality to be on the flip. So, is curriculum thinking about technology and because so many of pretty much all new curriculum products involve technology in some way. So, are they first thought to reach out and be like, how is this going to work, what do I not know that I can ask these folks about? I just really want that to be pretty seamless. I want us to work hand in hand. That goes along the lines with doing some other things to that we've already started, like overlaying ISTE Standards into the existing curriculum. So where does it fit in? So not that it's one more thing for teachers. Which we all know does not work and they don't have enough time for. But whereas it just already fitting? And so we can do that groundwork with Curriculum's blessing which we've gotten and then present that to our teachers and be like, see how this is already happening or, point out projects that I know many of them are probably working on and be like, you're doing it. And now you just know what to call it. And that, to me is big, and I think, not to be able to reference ISTE Standards for Students and then Teachers themselves is doing, you know, a big disservice to how technology is really going to work with education. so it's really important to me. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  22:40  

And then the buzzword STEM. So, we have a lot of STEM talk and what that action actually looks like and technology is right in that. So, to think that we're not going to be involved in some way, is just not a possibility. So just, how we can help support that. Because everyone's talking about STEM and my experience is everyone has different views of what that actually means. It's a good word to say again my experience someone can probably comment, call in and comment.

 

Larry Burden  23:10  

We can get it really confusing and throw STEAM in there and really have some conversations

 

Evan O'Branovic  23:13  

STEAM to. But just like I just, I think I said to Danielle, I think everyone says the word STEM and then in their head goes, please don't ask me specifically what I'm talking about, when I say STEM. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  23:24  

That's my next question for you Evan. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  23:25  

Yeah, so please don't. Please don't ask me that. I'll say it closer to the mic so that it's more clear. Please don't ask me. But yeah, so that one's an important one. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  23:36  

We want to look at our workflow. There's so much going on with technology the department's so big, you know, between the data team, the instructional team, the network people. How are we working smarter, not harder. I think a lot of those systems are already in place, or at least, you know, been talked about. And I'm hoping to just help kind of drive that ship, and make sure that it does become more efficient, and people feel like their work is valued. And that we're not redoing things that already have been done well. And so just kind of tying that all together. The libraries are another important one, working with Stephie a lot on just starting by what everything looks like. How the libraries are operating, and what our kind of dreams and hopes are for those spaces, and how we can really turn them into moving from an old library model, which, again, I think it's just a national trend of just books in a room, to where it truly becomes a dynamic learning space. And again, that's a buzz thing, kind of like STEM, you'll see a lot of people want to do that. So, but I actually do want to do it, as I know many other people in this district do. So how is that going to look? It's not going to be easy, but I think we have all the pieces in place to really make some changes there. So looking at the libraries is going to be huge. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  24:52  

Lastly, in instructional support. The one thing that shocked me about coming here was we have 1.6, 1.6

 

Danelle Brostrom  24:59  

Small but mighty. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  24:59  

Danelle and Dave instructional team for 15 or 16, schools technically, probably 16 officially right? How many students 10,000 plus, 

 

Danelle Brostrom  25:12  

and staff 

 

Evan O'Branovic  25:13  

and staff 

 

Danelle Brostrom  25:14  

and support staff. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  25:16  

And support staff.

 

Danelle Brostrom  25:16  

and, and...

 

Evan O'Branovic  25:18  

so as impressed as I was about everything, 

 

Larry Burden  25:22  

That's why the podcast is only 20 minutes long.

 

Evan O'Branovic  25:24  

which I still am impressed. Just how we can help that. I'm coming from a district, to give myself away, very small, three schools. And I had two Tech Integrators, myself and another person for three schools, and we were jockeying to get a third. So we had seen, but I think that's hopefully a compliment to us the value of our position. And so we were hoping that to be most effective, we really needed one per school in order to help that staff, and, and touch base with all those people on a regular basis. And so now I'm coming to this place...

 

Larry Burden  26:01  

There's a lot of smiles in here. We are holding the laughing in.

 

Evan O'Branovic  26:06  

that is not very close to that. Which is unfortunate, and it's not the end of the world. And so I think, you know, looking at that, maximizing the time and the resources that Danelle, David and to an extent, Stephie, you have to really figure out how we can use that. And we've had some of those discussions. And then, you know, maybe down the road, If we can do a good job, which I think we will have showcasing that value of, is this a position we need to increase, bring into the fold, Really, you know, showcase how that can be helpful. If Danelle can see a building, or someone like a Danelle can see a building more than once every couple weeks in an ideal world which probably isn't even always plausible, You know, moon shot.

 

Larry Burden  26:53  

Live the the dream, Danelle

 

Unknown Speaker  26:54  

Moon shot

 

Larry Burden  26:54  

live the dream, 

 

Evan O'Branovic  26:55  

The new guy, you know, he has a lot of hopes and dreams and then he settles into the reality. But I try and hold on to them for as long as possible so that we can make it happen.

 

Larry Burden  27:03  

I didn't sound like you have, you've had a bedding in period at all. You basically jumped right into the fire. And, 

 

Evan O'Branovic  27:08  

yeah, 

 

Larry Burden  27:08  

it had been on the burner for a while.

 

Evan O'Branovic  27:10  

Yeah, there was no, just relaxing. I've been told a variety of different timelines I have as the new guy. It goes anywhere from three months to a year. Some I'm hoping I get the year to really adjust myself. We'll see if the three months people will hold me to that and see if I got everything locked in within about three months. But it's a lot is a lot happening. And I definitely come from the instructional side of things. So that's my strengths, which I really enjoy doing. And something that you know, gets me going and then I've been trying to pick up, though I had some experience with all the technical side of things. You know, that's where I lean heavily on the Thomases the Bills, 

 

Larry Burden  27:48  

So Sorry,

 

Evan O'Branovic  27:49  

All this 

 

Evan O'Branovic  27:50  

So, sorry.

 

Evan O'Branovic  27:51  

You know, have their, have their own quirks, but are a great group of guys. And so, you know, I just lean really heavily on them to be like, what do I need to know to best help you, support you? That's what I'm all about. How can I support all these people? Because, they all do their jobs really well. They don't need me to micromanage. So I'm trying to avoid that. That's the goal.

 

Larry Burden  28:12  

Well, it sounds like there's gonna be some pushing and asking that infrastructure to do some things that maybe it's not quite set up to do right now. And having a good understanding of that, allowing yourself some time to have a good understanding of that, so. 

 

Evan O'Branovic  28:23  

Yeah, we're working on a whole lotta "Yes," right now. So that's what I pitched at the beginning. Probably gonna over Yes. Meaning we'll say yes to a lot of things. And I'm sure we'll have to reel that back a little bit. But I'm hoping to that's all my vision of, of trying to build those relationships. Show people that we're here to support. But that goes in both ways, meaning and I want to say yes to our team internally to for ideas they have, suggestions on how to make things happen. And I think if we can do a little bit more of that and do it in a reasonable fashion that we can accomplish, we're really going to showcase the value. And then it becomes easier to get some of those high level big goals done. Like have more Tech Curriculum Coordinators and EdTech coaches. All those good things that I think are just as important as the infrastructure data side, which is also vitally important, but we, I want more of a balance. 

 

Larry Burden  29:18  

The goal is to have it unseen. And nobody asked questions about it. It just works. Now It's time to actually teach people the tool.

 

Evan O'Branovic  29:24  

Right. Now, what's the data center? No one knows. It's just that building over there that used to be an old  elementary. That's always fun to show people, though. People who don't have an awareness of what the data center here at TCAPS looks like. That is an incredible building and just operation from a school district standpoint. I've never seen anything like it. I'm sure they exist in other places. But I was blown away by that. And that, to me is a really exciting piece to have and to know it's already in place. So we're moving on past that. 

 

Larry Burden  29:55  

What else you got?

 

Danelle Brostrom  29:55  

Wanna play game? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  29:57  

I do. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  29:57  

Okay. Brand new segment on the pad. This is called, This or That. Rapid fire. You gotta answer, okay?

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:04  

So you're going to give you two options, and I just hit it with one or the other. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:08  

You got it, one or the other. Okay? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:09  

I can handle that. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:10  

First, Google Docs or Google Sheets? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:13  

Sheets. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:14  

Podcast or Radio? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:16  

Podcast. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:17  

Let's talk about devices, touchscreen or just use the mouse?

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:21  

touchscreen.

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:22  

Michigan State or U of M?

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:23  

Michigan State. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:24  

Work with the Tech Department or go rogue?

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:29  

Work with the Tech Department.

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:31  

text or call on the phone millennial? 

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:33  

Text all day. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:35  

Lucy or Rosie?

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:39  

Rosie.

 

Danelle Brostrom  30:39  

I didn't think you were going to answer.

 

Larry Burden  30:39  

I would not have answered that.

 

Evan O'Branovic  30:47  

Not becuase...Rosie doesn't get the love my first born Lucy does. So my wife does a very nice job of taking care of Lucy and giving her everything and anything she wants. And don't get me wrong, she gets anything she wants for me too. But I try and lean on Rosie a little bit. she's second child and she needs that love, so I try and be that, that support system for her. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  31:07  

Nice 

 

Evan O'Branovic  31:08  

So that's what I'm leaning on. So we split. You know right now we can still play man to man. And do not have to go zone. So yeah, I'd say my wife's got Lucy. And I got Rosie. 

 

Danelle Brostrom  31:18  

Love it. 

 

Larry Burden  31:19  

Tech Tool of the Week.

 

Techtool of the Week  31:24  

Tech Tool of the Week, Headspace is free for educators. This happened over the summer. Headspace is a meditation app. And it is also located on your computer. So you can use it either one. But they went free for educators, which is exciting because there's an entire section for kids. You know that we love using meditation to bring kids down after recess, to bring kids to a place of getting ready to take assessments, or just to a place of calm. And I think Headspace has some really good options for kids. There's a whole section where you can choose an age group and find really quick three to six minute meditations that are perfect for the classroom. So I'll put that link in the show notes.

 

Larry Burden  32:00  

They do a great job. That particular app does a great job of actually teaching the concepts of mindfulness in a way that's understandable and not to cosmic.

 

Danelle Brostrom  32:08  

The graphics are beautiful too. And it's just a really, really nice tool for educators. 

 

Larry Burden  32:13  

absolutely

 

Danelle Brostrom  32:13  

I like it even better than Calm.

 

Evan O'Branovic  32:14  

And they're doing full circle there. They're helping you maybe not want to be on your phone or an app with a phone or an app. So they're working themselves by being to good out of their own business but that's impressive. It's a good goal.

 

Larry Burden  32:26  

All right, um, tutorials and updates just wanted to point out that we have a TechNollerGist pod recording on Thursday should drop on Friday. Just in time for the weekend. So clear out the calendars for the weekend so you can listen to the pod. You'd mentioned earlier TCAPSLoop YouTube channel is not dead yet. There will be things to be put on TCAPSLoop YouTube channel, it just hasn't happened yet this year. We're still early, give it some time. In closing Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @tcapsloop, 

 

Danelle Brostrom  32:52  

@brostromda, 

 

Evan O'Branovic  32:54  

@evanobranovic 

 

Larry Burden  32:55  

Nice. Subscribe to the podcast on podbean, iTunes, Stitcher, Tune-in, Downcast, Overcast, the Google Play Store and Spotify. Leave a review, we love the feedback. Thank you for listening and inspiring.

 

Larry Burden  33:08  

Oh we're just gonna play that on a loop.